It is no secret to generations of farmers that earthworms posses many amazing powers. One company is trying to harness this power for something that will help farmers in ways they could never have expected.

Chilean company BioFiltro, and a Mendocino, California vinyard Fetzer Vinyards are working together to change the way we view earthworms. Fetzer has a long history of using sustainable and environmentally friendly practices and in 1999, it became the first vineyard in California to source 100% of its energy from sustainable sources, largely from solar panels on its own property. This vineyard has also maintained woodlands surrounding its vines and received a Zero Waste certification in 2014.

Yet any vineyard or farm still face challenge of overcoming a very large issue. Water. Producing wine requires a lot of water. Water is not only used to irrigate the grapes, but it is also used to disinfect, clean, and bottle wine. Wastewater from these processes can be expensive and time-consuming to dispose of conscientiously.

BioFiltro’s if working on an idea that can help to eliminate this costly and unsustainable process of eliminating wastewater. This process takes the wastewater, pumps it through a few different filters to remove any large contaminants, then eventually sprays the remaining water over what is essentially a large earthworm habitat. This habitat is constructed into layers. Earthworms live in the top layer and digest the large contaminants that are extracted at first.The earthworms produce bacteria-rich ‘castings’ that work on the water that is sprayed in, separating any even tinier contaminants from the water. The second layer contains sawdust and the third contains gravel. These layers catch all sizes of contaminants, only allowing clean water through. After that, the water is treated with a slight amount of chlorine, sterilizing it and making it safe for reuse. At this point, the water is not clean for human consumption, but it is clean enough to use again. The entire system takes about four hours which is much shorter than older filtration systems that usually take weeks to work.

BioFiltro is already being used by food processors, slaughterhouses, and other entities that produce a lot of wastewater. Once set up, the vermiculture filtration systems can end up being extremely cost-effective.

The worms make this system a sustainable answer to wastewater problems by turning garbage into two highly prized materials: clean water and worm castings that work great for farmers as fertilizer.

With a few more tweaks, the BioFiltro could be a highly efficient, low-energy, high-producing answer to a problem faced by farmers worldwide.

Ariana Marisol is a contributing staff writer for REALfarmacy.com. She is an avid nature enthusiast, gardener, photographer, writer, hiker, dreamer, and lover of all things sustainable, wild, and free. Ariana strives to bring people closer to their true source, Mother Nature. She graduated The Evergreen State College with an undergraduate degree focusing on Sustainable Design and Environmental Science. Follow her adventures on Instagram.